Elon Musk spent more money on the 2026 midterm elections than any political donor in American history. In Texas, the state his companies call home, it didn’t buy him the results he wanted.
The world’s richest man spent at least $474 million on the midterms, including about $224 million in Texas, according to campaign finance records. On Tuesday, Texas voters elected Democrat James Talarico to the U.S. Senate over Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the candidate Musk spent the most to support. They also ousted Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in favor of Democrat Gina Hinojosa.
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The biggest share of Musk’s Texas spending moved in two checks in September. According to the Senate Leadership Fund’s third-quarter Federal Election Commission report, Musk gave the main Senate Republican super PAC $75 million on Sept. 9 and another $83 million on Sept. 23.
The day after each donation, the fund transferred the exact same amount to Texas PAC, a super PAC supporting Paxton. The filings don’t prove Musk’s specific dollars funded those transfers, but the timing drew wide attention.
Musk also gave Abbott $5 million in the final stretch of the race, according to state campaign finance filings first reported by Politico. The $474 million total runs only through mid-October. Post-election FEC reports due Dec. 3 will show whether he gave more in the campaign’s final weeks.
For Musk, the spending is a small slice of his fortune. With a net worth estimated at roughly $875 billion, the $474 million amounts to about 0.05% of his wealth. That’s roughly the equivalent of someone with $400,000 to their name spending $200, according to a Scripps News calculation.
Texas has become the home base for Musk’s business empire. He began moving operations there in 2020 after clashing with California over pandemic restrictions at Tesla’s factory in the state.
Today, Tesla runs its largest U.S. vehicle factory outside Austin, and SpaceX launches rockets from its Starbase complex in South Texas. In August, SpaceX and Tesla picked Grimes County for Terafab, a chip manufacturing complex projected to cost $55 billion in its first phase and up to $119 billion in total.
Those operations rely heavily on state decisions about electricity, water, environmental permits, infrastructure and tax incentives. Abbott had been a vocal supporter of Musk’s projects, and Paxton’s office had largely avoided scrutinizing Musk’s companies even as it took on other Big Tech firms.
Talarico made the flood of outside money part of his message on election night.
“We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots, and AI deepfakes that money can buy,” Talarico said. “They played dirty because they were desperate. But we never lost hope. We never lost faith. And against big money and long odds, we took our power back.”
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Investors reacted quickly. SpaceX shares closed down 3.8% on Wednesday and Tesla fell 3.3%, even as the broader market rose, and are tracking even further drops during market trading Thursday.
Musk responded on X with a nod to one of his newer ventures: “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now.”
Hinojosa inherits the office that oversaw more than $1.6 billion in tax incentives for Musk’s companies. She campaigned against generous corporate subsidies and has promised to freeze new data center approvals until the Legislature puts protections in place.
Her campaign has said Terafab alone received about $1.7 billion in school tax exemptions. The governor’s office also controls the Texas Enterprise Fund, which gave SpaceX $30 million for the project. Tesla is separately seeking state incentives for a proposed $10 billion solar cell plant near Houston.
Those incentives matter beyond Musk’s balance sheet. When a state grants a company a tax break, that’s revenue it doesn’t collect, and the cost is typically absorbed by other taxpayers or reflected in public budgets.
Hinojosa’s win doesn’t cancel existing agreements or stop Musk’s companies from operating in Texas. But her administration could take a tougher approach to permitting and new incentives as his companies look to expand.
Musk also faces a new landscape in Washington, where Democrats will control both the House and Senate in January. Even with President Donald Trump holding veto power, congressional Democrats can issue subpoenas without his signature.